Thursday Open Thread | Famous Black Firsts in Major League Baseball

Today’s Famous First — Don Newcombe the first African American to win the Cy Young Award.

From Madison, New Jersey, Don Newcombe was the first great American American pitcher in major league baseball history. He debuted for the Brooklyn Dodgers on May 20, 1949 and immediately helped them to the league pennant with 17 victories, led the league in shutouts, and pitched 32 consecutive scoreless innings.

Newcombe was also among the first four black players to be named to the All-Star team, along with his teammates Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella and the Indians’ Larry Doby.

In 1956, Newcombe was 27-7 with 139 strikeouts, a 3.06 ERA, 5 shutouts and 18 complete games, leading the league in winning percentage. He was named the National League’s MVP, and was awarded the first-ever Cy Young Award, then given to the single best pitcher in both major leagues.

Jackie Robinson, Don Newcombe, Roy Campanella

A 6’4″, 225-pound fastball pitcher, until 2011, Newcombe was also the only baseball player to have won the Rookie of the Year, Most Valuable Player and Cy Young awards. In addition to his pitching abilities, Newcombe was a dangerous hitter as well. He batted .271 (the 9th-best average in history among pitchers), with 15 home runs, 108 runs batted in, 238 hits, 33 doubles, 3 triples, 94 runs scored and 8 stolen bases.

At a fundraising event for Senator Barbara Boxer, President Barack Obama referred to Newcombe (who was attending the event) as “someone who helped… America become what it is.

I would not be here if it were not for Jackie Robinson and it were not for Don Newcombe.

– —A journalist from Rupert Murdoch’s Sun tabloid and two other suspects were arrested Thursday as part of an investigation into corrupt links between the British police and the press, officials said.

The bribery investigation is running alongside two other probes into phone and computer hacking sparked by revelations that reporters at Murdoch’s now-shuttered News of the World tabloid routinely intercepted communications of those in the public eye.

Police said the arrests early Thursday were the result of information passed on from Murdoch’s News Corp., which has vowed to get to the bottom of criminality at his British newspaper subsidiary, News International.

– -The company’s management and standards committee is carrying out its own internal investigations into the U.K. newspapers still in Murdoch’s stable — The Sun, The Times and the Sunday Times — and has been cooperating with the police investigations.

News International confirmed that one suspect arrested in the dawn raids Thursday worked at The Sun newspaper but would not name the journalist. He was identified as Duncan Larcombe, The Sun’s 36-year-old royal editor, by other British media including the Press Association and Sky News.
THERE IS MORE.

THEY GOIN’- – -DOWN!!– — -HAH! KARMA IS ON DA MOVE!- –

GreenLadyHere

POU FAM:- —-Mr. PRESIDENT’s SCHEDULE:- – —

– – –President Obama is scheduled to honor the Bowl Championship Series National Champion University of Alabama Crimson Tide at the White House. The team won their 14th championship during the 2011-2012 season. “The President will also continue his tradition of honoring sports teams for their efforts both on and off the field by recognizing the efforts by the Crimson Tide to give back to their community,” The White House said.

Feels as iff he has done MORE- — -HONORING than ANY OTHER PRESIDENT. :>)- – — – GOOD on HIM. :>)

In other news, the Republican-controlled House Agriculture Committee voted today to advance $33 billion in cuts to food stamps (SNAP). According to recent numbers, food stamps have reduced poverty by 8 percent and are directly stimulative for the economy.

And speaking outside of the binary — go stand in line at the grocery behind a single mother with a baby who is paying for food with food stamps and then tell me we should vote to end them immediately. If you can do that, you aren’t human.

Meanwhile, the CBC are telling their staffers to runteldat to Politico.

http://pragmaticobotsunite.blogspot.com/ Sepia

Ron Brownstein does us the favor of telling us why that is:

But the Gallup track, which is conducted among registered voters, has a sample that looks much more like the electorate in 2010 than the voting population that is likely to turn out in 2012: only 22 percent of the Gallup survey was non-white, according to figures the organization provided to Emory University political scientist Alan Abramowitz. That was close to the non-white share of the vote in 2010 (23 percent), but in 2008, minorities comprised 26 percent of all voters, according to exit polls; the Obama campaign, and other analysts, project the minority share of the vote will increase to 28 percent in 2012. In its survey, Pew, for instance, puts the non-white share at 25 percent.

I’d like to hear the folks at Gallup explain why they think the 2012 electorate in a presidential year will look like the one that turned out in 2010 for the midterms. There is no way they can justify that based on history.

– – – -First lady Michelle Obama has received a glowing 71 percent favorable rating from respondents to a new CNN poll of 1,015 Americans. The survey, conducted between April 13 and 15, gives insight into public opinions about President Obama and the first lady compared to Mitt and Ann Romney.

Mitt Romney, who effectively became the GOP’s leading presidential candidate when Rick Santorum left the race, received a favorable rating from 44 percent of respondents — just edging out the 43 percent with an unfavorable view of him.

By comparison, President Obama has garnered a favorable rating of 56 percent. The “favorable” rating reflects how the public feels about the candidate as a person. The “approval” rating reflects feelings about job performance. For this latter category, the president garnered a lower rating of 49 percent.

– – – – -SKIP- —

— — ->Ann Romney, wife of the GOP hopeful, is by contrast “unfamiliar to roughly four in ten Americans, but her favorable rating outweighs her unfavorables by a two-to-one margin,” according to CNN. In other words, she did not make much of an impression on those polled, despite being at the center of a fresh political controversy.– —LOL.
THERE IS MORE.

I read GLH’s post about Don Lemon giving Romney a pass on Ted Nugent. He’s another reason why I could care less about Black journalists on television.

GreenLadyHere

Good Thursday MornTin’ Sepia- —***BIG HUG*** :>)

– —-***fist bump***- —-I KNOW- — -RIGHT!!?—

Wonder WHAT WOULD offend him??- –NEVAMIND!!!

BUT- — -he would B – –“perfect” 4 the ACURA AD! – – LOL!!

Jus’ sayin’. . . .

Good 2 c U- -Sepia. Have a good day. :>)

TresL

I learned that lesson in the late 80’s and early 90’s as an idealistic Journalism grad in my first two media jobs. I wanted to be a journalist because I thought it was important that the insights and perspectives of black people be reflected in how news is gathered and presented. I found, however, that blacks in management positons and the journalists themselves more often than not make the same decisons that one would expect of a white person in the same position. They capitulate completely. They are fitted with “golden handcuffs” meaning you’re given status and money but you have no real power.

It was a painful realization and one of many reasons I left the profession.

MsKitty

Wow, I came out of J-school around the same time and your observation is dead on, especially with the editors. I only stuck around straight media for a couple of years before I moved on to PR…figured if I have to push a narrative I might as well get a bigger paycheck for it.

PBomb

One of the main reason I left also. I left about 5 years ago. Like Ms. Kitty I might well make money, so I segued into Marketing/communications. I am definitely happier for it.

rikyrah

Political AnimalBlog
April 18, 2012 4:04 PM

The Drug Testing Scam Blows Up

By Ed Kilgore

Back in February, Tarren Bragdon of the Florida-based Foundation for Government Accountabiity (an affiliate of the nationwide State Policy Network of right-wing think tanks) traveled to Atlanta to share with Georgia’s Republican-controlled legislature the good news about the Sunshine State’s law (which took effect last July) requiring drug testing for all those applying for benefits under the Temporary Asssistance to Needy Families (TANF) program:

Georgia State Representative Jason Spencer, sponsor of HB 668, invited Bragdon to testify in support of his bill after studying earlier FGA research on Florida’s welfare cash drug testing requirement. FGA analysis of state-generated data from the first quarter of the Florida law showed a 48 percent drop in monthly cash assistance approvals and a drug-related denial rate of 19 percent. In all, Florida taxpayers saved an estimated $1.8 million.
In December, Bragdon gave a similar presentation on Florida’s welfare cash drug testing law to the Health and Human Services Task Force of the American Legislative Exchange Council, an association of public, private and non-profit policy leaders who collaborate to develop ideas that address common challenges faced by the states.

Wow: welfare approvals cut in half by drug testing! No wonder the public-spirited folk of ALEC wanted to hear all about it.

Except it appears FGA’s “analysis” of the number was just a tad off. According to official documents from Florida forced from the state by the courts and then released by the ACLU (which is challenging the law on constitutional grounds), drug testing of welfare applicants has had no real effect on caseloads and has actually imposed a net cost on taxpayers, per this report from Lizette Alvarez of the New York Times:

From July through October in Florida — the four months when testing took place before Judge Scriven’s order — 2.6 percent of the state’s cash assistance applicants failed the drug test, or 108 of 4,086, according to the figures from the state obtained by the group. The most common reason was marijuana use. An additional 40 people canceled the tests without taking them.

Because the Florida law requires that applicants who pass the test be reimbursed for the cost, an average of $30, the cost to the state was $118,140. This is more than would have been paid out in benefits to the people who failed the test, Mr. Newton said.

As a result, the testing cost the government an extra $45,780, he said.

And the testing did not have the effect some predicted. An internal document about Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, caseloads stated that the drug testing policy, at least from July through September, did not lead to fewer cases.

Sadly, an old classmate of mine was murdered by her husband yesterday morning, along with her 1 year old baby and her grandmother. The husband was killed in a shootout with police after setting the house on fire.

Domestic violence is not cute and not a joke. I wish more could have been done to protect my classmate from her husband.

She was shot, stabbed & burned. The husband set the house on fire (with the baby and grandmother inside), then engaged in a shootout with police (he lost).

PBomb

Wow… how awful.

I am sorry to hear about that.

MsKitty

I am so sorry. I pray that your classmate’s family will find peace and comfort to face this tragedy.

rikyrah

this is so sad. Prayer to the family.

Daltex82

How heartbreaking. I just don’t understand how someone could be so evil. My sincerest condolences to your classmate’s family and to you.

MonieTalks

Town, I saw this. It happened in Hampton and was a breaking news story yesterday morning here in Hampton Roads. I was so saddened to hear about his and its even worse now that I know you had a personal connection.

She was also an educator, seemed like a wonderful lady who took all of the precautions (like protective orders, etc) and it wasn’t enough.

Town

We’re all in shock, especially about the baby. She was only 14 months old.

She was a kind, sweet person who will be missed greatly.

Alma98

I don’t know what to say Town this is tragic my condolences to the family and you. Believe it or not my son is working on a domestic violence project in school. Congress needs to pass Violence Against Women law and stop using it as a bargaining chip.

Aquagranny911

My heart to yours Town. This is so very sad. I had a close friend killed by her husband some years ago but at least he spared their child before he shot himself. This sort of thing just cuts me to the bone. Prayers & positive thoughts to you & the family of your friend.

Town

Thanks everybody for the responses. Violence against women is not funny and is not a game. Republicans must pay for playing games with women’s health and safety.

GreenLadyHere

- – -GOOD MORNTIN ALEXANDER2. ***BIG HUG*** :>)- —

– – –Ohhh- – – – “BIG” DON NEWCOMBE- —[One of the icons in my house as a kid. :>)]

For more than five decades, Leila Jabarin hid her secret from her Muslim children and grandchildren — that she was a Jewish Holocaust survivor born in Auschwitz concentration camp.

Although her family knew she was a Jewish convert, none of them knew of her brutal past.

It was only in the past week that Jabarin, who was born Helen Brashatsky, finally sat down and told them the story of how she was born inside Auschwitz, the most notorious symbol of Nazi Germany’s wartime campaign of genocide against Europe’s Jews.

Appearing on Fox and Friends this morning, Mitt Romney responded to an implicit broadside from Obama yesterday, when the president said he ”wasn’t born with a silver spoon in [his] mouth.”

“I’m certainly not going to apologize for my dad and his success in life,” Romney said. “He was born poor. He worked his way to become very successful despite the fact that he didn’t have a college degree and one of the things he wanted to do was provide for me and for my brother and sisters. I’m not going to apologize for my dad’s success. But I know the president likes to attack fellow Americans. He’s always looking for a scapegoat, particularly those that have been successful like my dad.”

Hit dog hollaring strapped to the top of a car. He truly has no suave or imagination, only contempt for PBO.

Miranda

Hit dog hollaring strapped to the top of a car.
______________________

OMG__________I can’t stop laughing.

MsKitty

Did PBO even mention Mittens and I missed it, because he was talking about his upbringing and how it relates to making things better for Americans. But it pissed off Mittens so it had the desired effect.

At this rate Willard is gonna be totally unhinged by July.

itgurl_29

That’s how he responds to that? Sounds like a whiny ass titty baby. He sounds like a KID!

rikyrah

BUT the President didn’t even say your name, Willard.

how come you think he was talking about you?

BWA HA HA HA HA AH HA

don’t start none, won’t be none, Willard.

like I said….all you’ve been up against is grifters and amateurs.

NOBODY is playing with you at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

http://winthemarket.com/the-spontaneous-healing-plan/ woody45

This is why things bode ill for Mittens. The President makes a sharp but throwaway comment without naming names and Willard practically goes to pieces. The President hasn’t even started to come out swinging and Romney is crying foul.

By September he’s going to be in a white jacket with no sleeves.

GreenLadyHere

Sepia- — -***furrowed brow***- – – -HUH???—-

– —I’m not going to apologize for my dad’s success. But I know the president likes to attack fellow Americans. He’s always looking for a scapegoat, particularly those that have been successful like my dad.”

I find that so f-ing pathetic as to be indescribable. After all of these years fighting to get into the workforce and have our work acknowledged as on par with male collleagues; all of the years people have fought to put sane maternity policies in place, with the appearance of Ann Romney, we’ve backslid to a point at which people are seriously arguing that all women need in life is to be the armpiece of a rich husband, a la Ann Romney. With each of these pieces, my respect for Ann Romney and her apologists diminishes.

Aquagranny911

AfuckingMEN!!!

(Sorry for the Fbomb)

http://pragmaticobotsunite.blogspot.com/ Sepia

S.E. Cupp writes:“But as I sit in a cramped New York apartment, surrounded by bills, drowning in a sea of deadlines, the conventional life of a stay-at-home mother actually sounds pretty nice.

I imagine that Ann Romney went through some thoughts on this matter in her own young years.”

Um, no.

1. Ann Romney was born into wealth, so she didn’t have to worry about paying bills and and she damn sure didn’t live in a cramped apartment.

2. Miss Ann didn’t “marry up”. She married within her station.

GN

Gotta love the ascension of BIRD logic courtesy of Ann Romney on a national stage. Classic groupie and gold digger anti-career arguments repackaged as something new and profound.

http://pragmaticobotsunite.blogspot.com/ Sepia

Is this bitch serious???

Bachmann also said the Obama’s recent Keystone XL pipeline proposal was a joke and that it was hypocritical of him to blame oil speculators. Bachmann explained that the President has every tool at his disposal to deal with speculators and “if there is a problem (with oil speculators) then President Obama is the problem for failing to utilize these tools that he has.”

This is just about waiving a tar baby in the air and saying that something else is a problem. I have never seen a more irresponsible President who is infantile in the way that he continually blames everyone else for his failure to first diagnose the problem and second to address the problem. – Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann

So this is what happens when Eunice from “Mama’s Family” goes to Congress.

MsKitty

It’s really amazing the level of projection that these GOP folks engage in when they talk about PBO’s “shortcomings.” In that last paragraph replace President with Congresswoman and it describes Bachmann to a T.

Town

Bachmann is buckdancing for the VP position, I see.

With the state of the GOP, I wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t get it.

Miranda

Jobless claims fell, but since we thought they would fall MORE, then its BAD FOR OBAMA!!! – this is the talking point for the day.

More Americans Than Forecast Filed Weekly Jobless Claims

More Americans than forecast filed applications for unemployment benefits last week, a sign the improvement in labor-market conditions may be stalling.

Jobless claims fell by 2,000 to 386,000 in the week ended April 14 from a revised 388,000 the prior period that was higher than initially estimated, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The median forecast of 47 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News called for a drop to 370,000. Revisions to previous data have been larger than normal and the government is trying to determine the cause, a Labor Department spokesman said as the figures were released to the press.

– — As if the Secret Service didn’t have enough to deal with just now, agents are meeting today with shoot-from-the-lip rocker Ted Nugent. They’re concerned about his comments that he’ll be “dead or in jail” if President Obama wins reelection, apparently indicating some kind of violence. During the meeting he intends to be as “polite and supportive as I possibly can be, which will be thoroughly,” Nugent told Glenn Beck yesterday. “The bottom line is I’ve never threatened anybody’s life in my life,” Nugent added. “I don’t threaten, I don’t waste breath threatening. I just conduct myself as a dedicated ‘We the people’ activist.”

Nugent hasn’t apologized for the apparently threatening comments, made at a National Rifle Association rally.
THERE IS MORE.

TAKE HIM DOWN!!- —

http://winthemarket.com/the-spontaneous-healing-plan/ woody45

He will. He’ll blubber like a teething baby. Then come out afterwards and talk trash about how he faced those govt agents down and told them all to kiss his AK.

GreenLadyHere

GOOD THURSDAY MORNTIN’- –woody45. :>)

– — -Ohhh would I love 2 B a “fly on the wall.”- — –Orrr a BEE. THEN I could – – -STING–HIM!! LOL.

– – — Pat Summitt, who won more games than anyone in NCAA college basketball history, stepped down Wednesday as coach of the Tennessee Lady Vols, less than eight months after revealing she had early-onset dementia.

A news conference is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. in Knoxville Thursday.

“I’ve loved being the head coach at Tennessee for 38 years, but I recognize that the time has come to move into the future and to step into a new role,” the 59-year-old Hall of Famer said in a statement issued by the school.

Longtime assistant Holly Warlick will take over for Summitt, who will become head coach emeritus.

When the Lady Vols lost in a regional final to eventual national champion Baylor, Warlick’s tears were a telltale sign of how draining the season had been and also that it likely was Summitt’s last game.

“She is an icon who does not view herself in that light, and her legacy is well-defined and everlasting,” athletic director Dave Hart said. “Just like there will never be another John Wooden, there will never be another Pat Summitt. I look forward to continuing to work with her in her new role. She is an inspiration to everyone.”
THERE IS MORE.

BLESS U as U CONTINUE 2 make an IMPACT in the LIVES of the LADY ATHLETES. :>)

MsKitty

This is so sad. Prayers to Summitt and her family as their deal with the difficult road ahead.

– – – -Yum! Brands, the owner of fast food brands KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut told Color of Change that they will no longer support the American Legislative Exchange Council, the right-wing front group that, until recently, was a driving force behind state voter suppression and “stand your ground” gun laws. Yum!’s decision means a dozen corporations (plus the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) have now dropped the conservative group:

“Now we know that Yum! Brands has joined the 11 other companies that have announced in recent weeks that they’re no longer members of ALEC. These companies are McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Mars Inc., Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Kraft Foods, Intuit, Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, Reed Elsevier (owner of LexisNexis and publisher of science and health information), American Traffic Solutions and Arizona Public Service.

“We want to thank these companies for making the right decision, and we want to thank ColorOfChange members and our partners. We continue to call on all major corporations to stop funding ALEC given its involvement in voter suppression. Our members and allied groups are prepared to hold accountable companies that continue to associate themselves with an organization that has attacked voting rights, causing irreparable damage nationwide.”
THERE IS MORE.– —-Woo! Hoo! :>)

Stephen’s kindergarten class was locked in a jail cell at the Berkeley Police Station on Monday as part of a field trip organized by a teacher at Sunnyside Elementary in that western suburb — a field trip parents were told was to be a visit to the library.

Now, some of those parents are upset because they were unaware the field trip called for their children to visit a jail — much less to be locked in a cell.

“Is this supposed to be a scared-straight tactic?” Stephen’s indignant mother, Carmen Ware, wanted to know. “For 6-year-olds? I don’t get this. What exactly is Sunnyside School saying — that it is a temporary holding facility for the jailhouse?”

The “Parental Approval Form” parents were required to sign described an “educational field trip” to “Hillside Public Library and Village Hall” for the purpose of “exploring community resources.”

“You take them on different trips to expose them to things,” said Ware, noting that at the college she attends as a full-time student, she often sees children her son’s age visiting. So by taking them to jail, “Are you telling this child he is so bad, and that the public school system is a holding facility? What are you saying?” she demanded.

The “Parental Approval Form” sent home with Stephen was signed by Flora Ware, the boy’s grandmother, in her daughter’s absence.

The grandmother was later stunned to learn from Stephen that he had gone to jail instead. They learned of the jail visit when Carmen Ware asked Stephen what he did that day.

“He said he was shown a vest and holster that holds a gun, and something that goes on your ankle, and he was put in a jail cell and the door was locked,” his mother said.

“We were both upset,” Stephen’s grandmother said. “We are wondering what they are prepping him for? What are they saying to kindergartners? If you don’t listen to us, this is where you are going to end up?”

Another mother whose daughter went on the jail-cell trip also felt parents were misled.

“I wouldn’t have wanted a kindergartner being shown a gun holder and all that,” Lisa Wanderer said. “My daughter [Aliyah] was uncomfortable.”

The principal at the west suburban elementary school, Nancy Tortora, did not respond to inquiries. Calls to Berkeley Police Chief Dale Gustason went unanswered. Also declining to comment about the jail-cell field trip was Berkeley School District 87 Supt. Eva Smith.

– – – — The fallout over Rep. Allen West’s (R-FL) Joe McCarthy-style accusation that “there’s about 78 to 81 members of the Democratic Party that are members of the Communist Party” continues. West has not backed down from his ludicrous assertion that membership in the Congressional Progressive Caucus is akin to Marxism and has even sent out a fundraising letter bragging about the comments and asking for donations to help him fight the “distortions of the corrupt liberal media.”

This morning, in an interview with CNN’s Soledad O’Brien, West repeated the charges but refused to identify which members he believed to be Communists:

O’BRIEN: So name names for me. Which? Start naming the 78 to 81.

WEST: Oh we don’t have to do that…

O’BRIEN: No, no, we do, I’m dying to know.

WEST: You can go look up the Congressional Progressive Caucus. You can go look up the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

This study in contrast leaves Republicans on the horns of an election-year dilemma: As they eagerly seek to rebuild bridges with Hispanics, party leaders are simultaneously pushing bills that would make life harder for members of that same community.

The Republican-led House advanced legislation Wednesday that aims to prevent parents who immigrated to the country illegally from receiving tax credits for raising children. And that’s inciting the ire of influential Hispanic advocates.

“An estimated 85 percent of families affected by this policy change are Hispanic,” warned the National Council Of La Raza, a premier Latino group, in a statement Monday urging Congress to oppose the measure. The organization estimated that the policy would cost the typical undocumented family $70 per paycheck. “Approximately 3.5 million Latino children and their families would face greater hunger, poverty and other severe hardships if this proposal is enacted,” the group said.

The Republican-led bill — still at the committee level — seeks to deny eligibility for the Child Tax Credit to parents who file their return with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN). Many undocumented immigrants — the lion’s share of whom are Hispanic, and whose children are often U.S. citizens — file taxes using an ITIN because they do not qualify for a Social Security number.

“The legislation will help deter abuse and fraud that costs taxpayers billions of dollars by preventing those without Social Security numbers, including illegal immigrants who are currently ineligible to work in the United States, from receiving checks from the IRS in the form of the refundable child tax credit,” said House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) in his opening statement. “This provision will save taxpayers $7.6 billion over the next 10 years.”

The measure, part of a larger Republican plan to forestall automatic cuts to defense and domestic programs set to kick in Jan. 1, also axes food stamps and other domestic programs for low-income people, a disproportionate share of whom are Hispanic. The push is mostly political as the Democratic-led Senate is widely expected to reject it.

But it underlies the difficulty Republicans will have courting Hispanic voters on the merits of their policies. Instead they’re relying on a weak economy, hunger for change and disillusionment with President Obama to help them make inroads with the community.

Ahhh dont worry bout it Mittens! The GOP believes as long as they can find people who know all the words to “Livin La Vida Loca” or watched “West Side Story”, they can be GOP surrogates to Latino voters nationwide and overcome all these policies by the GOP that would disproportionately harm them!

We first began reporting two months ago on the legislative fight surrounding the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which has traditionally enjoyed bipartisan support. This year’s effort has drawn Republican opposition, however, because the bill includes provisions to bolster LGBT protections, defenses for victims of domestic abuse who are undocumented immigrants, and expand the authority of Native American tribes to prosecute crimes.

In previous years, VAWA sailed through the Senate with nary a discouraging word. This year, when the Senate Judiciary Committee took up the bill, literally every Republican on the committee voted against the bipartisan bill.

To put it mildly, Democrats aren’t backing down on this. Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) held a press conference yesterday to condemn Republican efforts to delay the bill; Attorney General Eric Holder said yesterday he finds it “inconceivable” that the bill has been held up; and Vice President Biden, who helped write the bill in 1994, delivered impassioned remarks on the subject yesterday.

So, what’s going to happen? The odds of VAWA passage are quite good — Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) conceded yesterday that Republicans will not filibuster the bill, and if it gets an up-or-down vote, it’s almost certain to pass — but the Senate GOP minority is nevertheless working on its own scaled-back version of the bill to compete with the bipartisan version.

The Senate schedule is influx, but we may see action on VAWA as early as today. The future of the bill in the Republican-led House is less clear.

And what does the presumptive Republican presidential nominee think of the bill? I’m glad you asked.

——————————————————————————–

In 2004, reporters asked Mitt Romney during his first presidential campaign whether or not he supports the Violence Against Women Act. At the time, he said he wasn’t “familiar” with the law and didn’t have a position.

This year, Romney is familiar with it, but is afraid to take a firm stand.

If Republicans took over the country with the White House and a majority in the House and merely maintaining filibuster ability in Senate, Michigan could be a blue print for what is in store for us.

Detroit is facing a crisis. It may not be able to conduct a Presidential election due to lack of funding in the budget. Detroit spent $1.49 million on the 2008 Presidential election, and this year requested $1.2 million but was only granted $737,000.

After Detroit Mayor Dave Bing (D) cut the budget for the Presidential election in half and cut the Department of Elections by 25%. Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey said there is no way they can conduct the 2012 Presidential election due to their inability to comply with federal law under the severe budget constraints. The Mayor tried to pass this off as shared sacrifices, but sacrificing the root of democracy itself is not exactly the same thing as cutting salaries.

Check out Michigan if you want to see just what the whole US of A will be like under GOP rule!!!

Miranda

ROFLMAO…..or you gone do what?

North Korea Threatens Retaliation

Your move, Mr. President. North Korean officials threatened Tuesday to retaliate if the United States didn’t stick with a plan to send 240,000 metric tons of food to the impoverished Asian nation. The Obama administration decided to scrap a Feb. 29 agreement to deliver the aid after North Korea went ahead with a rocket launch last week. One of the provisions of the prior arrangement was that North Korea halt its nuclear program. The United Nations condemned the rocket launch, which failed in spectacular fashion, and called on world leaders to increase sanctions against the Communist regime.

Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) and his ex-wife have reached an agreement to end the court case over whether he owed her more than $100,000 in unpaid child support, Walsh’s campaign announced Thursday morning.

“We both regret this public misunderstanding and the effect it has had on our children,” Walsh and his ex-wife, Laura Walsh, said in a joint statement. “Like many families, we have had our share of issues and made our share of mistakes over the years. Having resolved these issues together and cleared up these mistakes in private, we now agree that Joe is not and was not a ‘deadbeat dad’ and does not owe child support.

“We both have been loving and devoted parents to our children, ages 24, 21, and 17, and are happy to avoid a public legal fight hurtful to our entire family and look forward to caring for our children in private.”

If there’s one unshakable, unwavering rule in American politics in the 21st century, it’s this: Republicans oppose any tax increases on anyone by any amount for any reason, no matter the consequences. Full stop.

There is, however, a pesky little asterisk tied to this rule that often goes overlooked: a whole lot of Republicans support tax hikes on the poor. Indeed, the House Republican budget plan, as written by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), actually increases the tax burden on those at the very bottom of the income scale.

ThinkProgress’ Scott Keyes asked Rep. Pat Tiberi (R-Ohio), a member of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, about this yesterday. Tiberi stressed the need for low-income families, many of whom have no federal income tax burden at all, to have some “skin in the game.”

This is a surprisingly common sentiment in GOP circles. Indeed, none other than Mitt Romney told voters in Florida last year, “I think it’s a real problem when you have half of Americans, almost half of Americans, that are not paying [federal] income tax.”

Got that? Millions of struggling Americans are not currently required to pay federal income taxes, and the presumptive Republican nominee considers that “a real problem,” which presumably he would try to fix if elected.

When Democrats want millionaires to pay a little more, it’s socialism. When Republicans want the poor to pay a little more, it’s just helping these low-income Americans have some “skin in the game.”

Welcome to class warfare, Republican style.

——————————————————————————–

In case anyone’s forgotten, the relevant details matter here: millions of Americans may be exempt from income taxes, but they still pay sales taxes, state taxes, local taxes, Social Security taxes, Medicare/Medicaid taxes, and in many instances, property taxes. It’s not as if these folks are getting away with something — the existing tax structure leaves them out of the income tax system because they don’t make enough money to qualify. Indeed, many are retirees who can’t earn an income because they’re no longer in the workforce.

But for many Republicans, including the party’s presidential candidate, it’s “a real problem” that these folks aren’t also paying federal income taxes — and the only way to correct this problem is by increasing the tax burdens of those least able to afford it.
.

Mitt Romney, American Parasite
His years at Bain represent everything you hate about capitalism
By Pete Kotz Wednesday, Apr 18 2012

It was the early 1990s, and the 750 men and women at Georgetown Steel were pumping out wire rods at peak performance. They had an abiding trust in management’s ability to run a smart company. That allegiance was rewarded with fat profit-sharing checks. In the basement-wage economy of Georgetown, South Carolina, Sanderson and his co-workers were blue-collar aristocracy.

“We were doing very good,” says Sanderson, president of Steelworkers Local 7898. “The plant was making money, and we had good profit-sharing checks, and everything was going well.”

What he didn’t know was that it was about to end. Hundreds of miles to the north, in Boston, a future presidential candidate was sizing up Georgetown’s books.

National Review’s John O’Sullivan: On the Board of Directors of a White Nationalist Group

Sat on board while VDare provided start-up funding for the extreme white nationalist website, Alternative Right

Documents obtained from Guidestar reveal that John O’Sullivan — former editor and current staff writer and “editor-at-large” for National Review — is listed on the board of directors for the white nationalist organization Lexington Research Institute Limited (aka The VDare Foundation) most commonly known as VDare.

Form 990s obtained from Guidestar reveal he was on their board from 2009 to 2010 with the overview report indicating him on the board of VDare from the 2006 to 2010 (Fiscal year ending on December 31, 2010).

On March 15, 2010, the Southern Poverty Law Center reported that white nationalist Richard B. Spencer of Taki’s magazine (see John Derbyshire firing) began a venture with Peter Brimelow, et al, to create a new online white nationalist magazine, Alternative Right.

– – — Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester, Jr. has been named as the new judge in the trial of George Zimmerman, the second-degree murder defendant in the case of Trayvon Martin.

Zimmerman faces a bond hearing on Friday at 9 a.m., over which Judge Lester will preside to determine if Zimmerman will be granted bail and to set the bail amount. Zimmerman killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin on February 26 in Sanford, Fla. with a registered handgun. The African-American teen was unarmed.- –

– – – -SKIP- – –

Lester was assigned to the case through random rotation. He replaced Circuit Judge Jessica Recksiedler, who had originally been assigned to the trial. Recksiedler recused herself today, because Zimmerman’s attorney Mark O’Mara requested that she step aside over a potential conflict of interest.

— – -SKIP- –
— – -Lester, 58, has been a judge for 15 years, having won his judgeship in 1997 against an incumbent.

According to the Orlando Sentinel, “[h]e is popular with attorneys,” “has a reputation for doing things quickly,” and “has a great deal of experience with criminal trials, including high-profile cases.”

Lester is noted for handing down death sentences for murder, although life in prison is the toughest sentence for Zimmerman’s charge of murder in the second degree.
THERE IS MORE.

– — -WATCHIN’ him. . . .

Aquagranny911

“….WATCHIN’ him….” also. And NO BAIL! Zimmerman has already been loose for over 45 days after the shooting. I don’t trust his family & his supporters. If things go against him during the trial I would not want to see just how well extradition from Peru would go.

rikyrah

Posted at 09:03 AM ET, 04/19/2012
The Morning Plum: Who is winning the clash of visions?
By Greg Sargent

As I’ve been saying here, the burden is on President Obama to sell the need to combat inequality and tax unfairness as not just a matter of basic morality, but as a way to facilitate economic growth, by enabling government investment in the future that will spur opportunity and social mobility over the long term. Mitt Romney and Republicans are trying to disentangle the tax fairness issue from the economy in the public mind, by arguing that hiking taxes on the rich will do nothing for the economy and that shrinking government is the route to broad prosperity.

Today’s New York Times/CBS poll is the first survey I’ve seen that asks about tax fairness in the context of economic growth:

Which do you think is the best way to promote economic growth in the U.S.? 1.Lower taxes on individuals and businesses, and pay for those tax cuts by spending on some government services and programs, or 2. Spend more on education and the nation’s infrastructure, and raise taxes on wealthy individuals and businesses to pay for that spending.

Lower taxes, cut spending: 37
Spend more, raise taxes: 56

The poll also finds that 67 percent say the government should do more to help improve the situation of middle class Americans; 52 percent say government shold do more to improve the housing market; 57 percent think the wealthy pay less than their fair share in taxes; and that 51 percent think capital gains should be taxed as ordinary income. People say they dislike government in the abstract, but when the talk turns to specifics, suddenly active government doesn’t look so bad.

All this is key to Obama’s ongoing case that lowering taxes on the rich and trickle down economics represent a failed ideology and won’t help secure the middle class’s prosperity — and that more progressive taxation, more active government, and more investment in the future are the better way

What this Election Will Be About
by BooMan
Thu Apr 19th, 2012 at 10:39:41 AM EST

We’ve spent a lot of time trying to unearth “the real Mitt Romney.” What does he stand for? What positions are merely for convenience and what positions are non-negotiable? Will he govern more like a Massachusetts governor facing an overwhelmingly Democratic legislature, or the more-conservative-than-thou candidate we saw in the primaries?

And how much freedom does he have to choose?
We don’t even know if Romney will be a realist or a neo-conservative in his foreign policy. His word counts for nothing. But there is one area where he is going to have to reveal himself. He is going to have to take sides on a government shutdown in September. The White House has now guaranteed this.

I try to avoid writing about the budget both because I’m not that good at it and because it’s obviously quite boring. But the budget is going to wind up being the biggest domestic issue in this campaign. Let me try to explain. In the big picture, the dispute about the budget is really a proxy for two diametrically-opposed visions of the federal government and what it should do. Romney isn’t the driver of this vision. He just wound up in the ship’s cabin at this particular point in history. And this point in history is the high-water mark for the modern conservative movement. The Republican Party has been completely taken over by conservatives and they have more power in Congress than in any time in our nation’s history. They will either win this election and begin to implement their radical revision of the New Deal and post-war consensus, or they will lose this election and see their numbers recede as demographic changes force the party to moderate. So, yes, the stakes are really big.

That’s the wide-angle view. The narrow-angle view is a lot more specific.

In a major escalation of a slowly building fight over funding the government, the White House has warned House Republicans, in no uncertain terms, that the government will shut down in September if the GOP does not adhere to an agreement they cut with Democrats in August during the standoff over raising the nation’s debt limit.

“Until the House of Representatives indicates that it will abide by last summer’s agreement, the President will not be able to sign any appropriations bills,” writes Jeffrey Zients, acting director of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, in a letter addressed to congressional appropriators Wednesday.

The election comes down to “Do you want a white dude in the White House badly enough to risk economic downfall, reversal of women’s rights and open season on minorities?”

Aquagranny911

BINGO! You win the grand prize!

rikyrah

I luv you, Town

GreenLadyHere

- – – —LOL.- -Town!- – – -Town!- –Town!!- — LOL!!

***wavin the white flag of surrender*** :>)

THANK U. :>)

Miranda

Cantor is such a punk and its all on video. You get asked directly about anti-semitism in the GOP, which was directed AT YOU, and you go mute. Yeah, the title is just right “Suggests” because he damn sure didn’t say it outright…punk.

Mitt Romney hasn’t taken a question from national press since March 16
by Jed Lewison

It’s been 35 days and counting since Governor Dog-on-Car took questions:

ROMNEY WATCH: Reporters yelled questions at Romney yesterday on the rope line after a speech prebutting this summer’s Democratic National Convention — to no avail. Romney has not taken questions from the press since March 16 in Puerto Rico, and even then only one member of the national press corps got a question in. The rest were all from the Puerto Rican press.

So what do you think he’s more afraid of? Questions about why he keeps on reviving the Republican War on Birth Control … or questions about why the centerpiece of his economic plan is an unpopular $10 trillion tax cut for the wealthy that will lead to a fiscal crisis without creating a single job?

Late yesterday President Obama’s threatened congressional Republicans with a pre-election government shutdown if they don’t get back into line with the deficit agreement established last year. There was nothing vague about the threat, either, as reported by TPM’s Brian Beutler:

“Until the House of Representatives indicates that it will abide by last summer’s agreement, the President will not be able to sign any appropriations bills,” writes Jeffrey Zients, acting director of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, in a letter addressed to congressional appropriators Wednesday.

The message is simple: The government will shut down just ahead of the 2012 presidential election if Republicans break faith with the debt limit deal.

The debt limit deal requires Congress by law to limit discretionary spending in next year’s appropriations to $1.047 trillion. During the debt limit fight, leaders of both parties and the White House understood that the government would be funded at this level for the next fiscal year — and moreover they had reached accord on how that money would be divided between defense and non-defense programs. Those agreements removed two trip wires, and appeared to greatly reduce the likelihood of a government shutdown in 2012.

The GOP backtracking on the deficit deal is universally attributed to the conditions House conservatives placed on support for the Paul Ryan budget. In essence, they wouldn’t vote for it unless the leadership agreed to begin implementing its cuts through the appropriations process this year. Since this course of action also satisfied Republican Members frantic to head off the planned “sequestration” of defense spending at the end of the year, it wound up making sense to Boehner and company. And their rationalization for tearing up the agreement made so very publicly with the Senate and the White House is that the domestic spending levels in the agreement is a “ceiling, not a floor.” In other words: We never meant it.

Now the White House is heading off one tactic they might have employed, assuming they can get some support in the Senate: sending the president a few bills he can sign, and holding off the controversial stuff—a defense appropriations bill with higher spending than the levels agreed to, or say, an ag appropriations bill with deep food stamp cuts—until the last minute, making Obama the bad guy for disrupting the government. It’s all or nothing: get back in line with the agreement you signed last year, or let the federal government drift towards a shutdown on September 30, five weeks before the election.

– – – -In order to gain the attention of urban dwellers, politicians need to know what their wants and needs are. Rather than preaching empty promises, one must speak truths with charisma, thus earning true support (and swing votes) from the very people necessary to win the presidential race.

Blacks, Latinos and many others are ready to make the bold move to stand with Mitt Romney, if only he shows them why they should.- -OHHH- -THIS IS A BOLDFACE LIE!- – –

I- —IIn a 2007 YouTube video, a young man named Cory, from North Hollywood, California, asks Mitt Romney what he is doing to reach out to African Americans. He further questions why Romney was a “no-show” at the recent debate at Morgan State University.

Fast forwarding to 2012, Mitt Romney has yet to reveal a plan of action for the urban people leaving open the question of whether the Romney team has a plan for the urban communities? (Washington Times)

Click here for more…
THERE IS MORE.

Miranda

He doesn’t have a PLAN- — 4- – -WYT FOLKS!!-
__________________

so true LMAO

rikyrah

Thu Apr 19, 2012 at 08:28 AM PDT.

Mitt Romney is way, way too sensitive

President Obama, 2009:
None of us were born with a silver spoon in our mouths, but we got a great education.

President Obama, 2010:
Neither Harry or I were born with a silver spoon in our mouths. Our families were working folk. And we understand how hard it is sometimes.

President Obama, 2011:
Most of you weren’t born with a silver spoon in your mouth.

President Obama, yesterday:

Somebody gave me an education. I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth. Michelle wasn’t. But somebody gave us a chance.

And Mitt Romney responds:
Well, you know, the President is really taking aim at anybody he can find these days. In fact, in my case, I’m certainly not going to apologize for my dad and his success in life. He was born poor. He worked his way to become very successful despite the fact that he didn’t have a college degree. And one of the things he wanted to do was provide for me and for my brother and sisters.

I’m not going to apologize for my dad’s success, but I know the president likes to attack fellow Americans. He’s always looking for a scapegoat, particularly those [who] have been successful like my dad, and I’m not going to rise to that. This is a time for us to solve problems. This is not a time for us to be attacking people; we should be attacking problems.

And if I’m president, I will stop the attack on fellow Americans. I’ll stop the attack on people and start attacking the problems that have been looming over this country.

Yeesh, talk about somebody who needs to lighten up. President Obama was not talking about Mitt Romney, nor Mitt’s dad. He was saying that one of the things that makes America great is the idea that everybody should have a fair shot at success, no matter who their parents might be, and that we as a nation need to be committed to supporting the educational opportunities that make that idea a reality. If Mitt can’t even agree with that, then what can he agree with? And if he thinks that is a personal attack, then what isn’t? .

The kitchen isn’t even cooking yet & the Mittster can’t take the heat from a cup of coffee!

My advice to Mitty:

Just get “BIGGEST LOSER” tattooed on your forehead & move on with your life.

Miranda

White House Shoots Back Over ‘Silver Spoon’ Comment

At a Thursday briefing, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said that anyone who thinks Obama’s “silver spoon” comment was about them “might be a little oversensitive.”

Mitt Romney earlier today responded to Obama’s “silver spoon in mouth” remark by saying he wasn’t “going to apologize for [his] dad and his success in life.”

Ebogan63

Shorter WH: “Who gon’ check me, boo?”

MsKitty

Ramped up emotional response from Mittens incoming (no doubt).

They are really getting under his skin. Has there ever been a mercy rule in a presidential campaign like they have in little league? There might have to be one, though it would be more entertaining to just watch Willard slowly lose his shit.

– – -In Pittsburgh, they’re calling it “CookieGate,” but fair warning, it’s not exactly a serious political scandal. Mitt Romney held a tax day picnic just outside the city Tuesday, in what should have been an easy photo op, if only he hadn’t mentioned the food. “I’m not sure about these cookies,” he said, turning to a woman next to him. “They don’t look like you made them. Did you make those cookies? You didn’t did you? No. No. They came from the local 7-Eleven bakery or whatever.”

— -The cookies actually came from much-beloved local establishment Bethel Bakery, and when video of his quip aired on CBS 2 Pittsburgh, it sparked an outrage, the Wall Street Journal reports.
THERE IS MORE